Rodney Campbell's Blog

So this is more like it. I moved down the coast a little to where the rocks were strewn all along the coastline so I had some compositional options

Floss

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 14 mm, 3 sec at f/11, ISO 64

I’m also trying out my new Kase 100mm filter system today (thanks Gerry for the recommendations and question answering :)). For this image I’m using the Kase K9 100mm filter holder along with the Kase magnetic CPL and a slot in Kase Wolverine 3 stop (0.9) reverse grad ND filter

The it was all about getting the settings right to get the right sort of shutter speed (in the low seconds), and the right timing to get a nice draw of water as it’s sucked back out towards the ocean

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

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So… my first sunrise shoot in almost a year

… and my first poor decision right off the bat. I headed out to Long Reef on Sydney’s Northern Beaches – basically because I hadn’t been there in a number of years and it was relatively close to home. Alas I hadn’t taken the tide into consideration so arriving here at almost high tide it was somewhat disappointing. Essentially everything good was under water and there were no nice large still pools of water with rocks strewn everywhere to photograph

Glow

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/8, ISO 320

Well it was too late to go anywhere else now (it’s about a 20 minute walk to here from the car so…). So might as well try and force something together with this one lone rock. Yeah… it’s not great… lets move on and do something else when it gets closer to sunrise…

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

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So… saving the best for last with an image I’ve titled Stainless. This as it turns out was the very last frame I took this day. My favourite of the session as it turns out, perhaps I should have stayed a little longer…

I’d mentioned previously that I should have been dropping in an ND (neutral density) filter to drag out the shutter even longer. With enough time to allow that bubbly foam wash time to really streak through the whole image during a longer exposure

Stainless

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 14 mm, 98 sec at f/13, ISO 64

As it happens the water level had been steadily rising whilst I’d been shooting here and the volume of water pounding down the falls was getting stronger. This resulted in more churn in the water at the base of the falls and much more bubbly foam. It was also getting much darker (it was almost 6PM now) as the sun was setting. As it turns out no need for ND’s anymore 🙂

I’d switched to bulb mode and was pushing out towards 100 seconds so there was enough time for the bubbles to really flow all the way past the camera frame. Resulting in this mass of streaks across most of the water surface – just what I was looking for

And for kicks here is a monochrome rendition of the same image. It actually probably fits the stainless moniker more readily

Stainless ][

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 14 mm, 98 sec at f/13, ISO 64

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Another from my impromptu session on a local nearby creek. Wasn’t expecting quite this flow of water, but welcomed it. I guess a lot of the local roads must feed their water into this little creek

I was doing what I could to drag the shutter and give that foamy wash enough time to streak through the image. The movement of the water was also creating these nice circular eddies

I was however being lazy – just using the CPL, pushing the ISO down low and exploiting the very overcast conditions to get to 30 seconds. When really I should have been dropping in an ND and going to bulb for a few minutes

Circular Eddies

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 18 mm, 30 sec at f/11, ISO 31

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We’ve all been making much more use of the local walking trails and bushwalks in our area since the pandemic began. Nowadays with more people working from home and with the lockdowns, the trails are all now well worn. We’ve all been fully exploring all the local trails within 5 kilometers of our house

I’d spied this little spot not more than 500m from home recently. It got me to thinking it might make a good spot for some “proper” photography on a nice overcast day

As luck would have it a few days later it rained heavily but very briefly in the afternoon. Once it had stopped I went over to see what I could find. The little creek was in full flow and even some nice waterfall action happening

Swept

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 23 mm, 15 sec at f/11, ISO 64

These two images are essentially from the same spot

One looking upstream towards this now cascading falls with a decent sized pool inbetween. This allowed the now foamy water to be swept through a longer exposure

The other looking 180 degrees downstream as it flows down another smaller cascade of falls and off into the distance. Well in this case under a bridge carrying a fairly major multi lane road. That’s how close to “civilisation” we are – though you wouldn’t know it from these images 🙂

Rivers of Gold

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 17.5 mm, 30 sec at f/10, ISO 31

I hadn’t taken or posted any “real” landscape images in some time – hopefully the bug might be back…

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